The present disclosure relates to a method of growing a nitride single crystal and, more particularly, to a method of growing a nitride single crystal and a method of manufacturing a nitride semiconductor.
A heterogeneous substrate such as a sapphire substrate, a SIC substrate, or the like, is commonly used as a substrate for growing a nitride single crystal. However, such a heterogeneous substrate is costly or has high hardness, making processing difficult. In particular, a sapphire substrate has low electrical conductivity.
In order to overcome such limitations, a scheme of utilizing a silicon substrate to grow a nitride single crystal has been proposed. However, when a nitride single crystal thin film is grown on a silicon substrate, dislocation density is increased due to lattice mismatch between the silicon substrate and the thin film, and plastic deformation cracks may occur due to a difference between coefficients of thermal expansion. As a result, a thin film grown on a silicon substrate may have an uneven thickness. In addition, a silicon element may be diffused to form a eutectic metal with a metal (e.g., gallium) of Group-III nitride, causing a melt-back phenomenon.